This is a single dormitory of about 20 square meters, with a separate kitchen and bathroom. The main color of the interior is gray and black. The tables, chairs, cabinets, and beds are all standard mass-produced configurations. There are many books about mechanical maintenance and interstellar warfare on the bookshelf.
There are books like this, and there is a toolbox in the corner of the room that cannot be closed because it is full of stuff.
At this time, the alarm clock on the bedside table started playing music.
"[Mona Lisa~Who is she~Has she also searched for love several times~]"
The owner of the dormitory was woken up almost immediately by the fast-paced music of the alarm clock.
He has short curly blond hair and a pair of eyes with gray pupils. He has a tough and simple appearance, and a strong and strong body. He will give people who see him the feeling that "this is an honest man who is not easy to mess with."
"[Her smile is so mysterious and beautiful~Maybe she has also experienced thousands of emotional mountains and rivers~]"
"【Just discovered--】"
Click.
He raised his hand and turned off the alarm clock.
"Huh...fortunately, my Mona Lisa didn't shed tears." He casually straightened his hair that was a little messy while sleeping, got out of bed and started to wash up.
7:30
Half an hour later, the man had finished washing, but his breakfast was not ready yet.
"It will take me about five minutes to finish toasting the bread," he said, looking at the toaster and hanging the work badge on his chest. "Maybe I should buy a new one."
The content on the work card is:
[Ivan johnstinger, mechanical engineer, Horizon Space Station Mechanical Repair and Equipment Maintenance Department.]
"I don't know why aliens would send ambassadors to this place where birds don't lay eggs," he said to himself in front of the toaster: "Thanks to him, I have to work overtime until eight o'clock every day to ensure that all equipment
You can get off work only when everything is running normally."
7:40
"Hi, Ivan~ It's still so early."
Ivan had just opened the door and walked out of the apartment. As soon as the door was locked next to him, a man wearing the same uniform as him said hello to him.
"I'm going to go to the newly opened snack street in the business district for breakfast. You must go directly to your work."
"Yes," Ivan nodded: "Although working hours are at nine o'clock, we must take care of our own affairs in advance. Those guys will definitely let us fix it immediately after they find something wrong after going to work. In that case, we
The scheduled arrangements will be disrupted."
"Anyway, we have you, don't worry," his colleague patted him on the shoulder: "You go ahead and I will bring you your favorite 'fried dough wrapped in sugar' later."
"Sugar cake," Ivan corrected.
"It doesn't matter~ I'll see you later~" The colleague ran away quickly in the opposite direction to work.
8:10
After Ivan passed the security check, he entered the "Mechanical Repair and Equipment Maintenance Department".
After entering the main entrance of the department, you can see an eye-catching logo painted on the data screen on the wall:
【Departmental responsibilities:】
[1. Regularly maintain the communication, energy and life support systems of the space station to ensure their normal operation. 】
【2. Repair damaged construction machinery, turrets, interactive devices, monitoring and other equipment.】
[3. Replace parts that cannot be repaired and have to be scrapped. 】
【4. Other matters arranged by superiors.】
"Outsiders would never imagine that the most common job is actually 4." Ivan muttered and walked towards the large office where he was.
When he was halfway there, the data screen changed its content:
[In order to welcome the visit of Ambassador Waller, Star Alliance will conduct individual interviews and registrations with all staff of our department at 15:00 on the 17th. Please arrange your working time reasonably according to the situation. 】
"..." Ivan stopped for a moment and glanced at the data screen: "They have an excuse to get off work early."
9:03
The large office where Ivan is located is in the shape of a huge semicircle, which can accommodate about a dozen people. Its curved side is close to the outer shell of the space station. To put it nicely, "you can see the starry sky at any time."
To put it bluntly, it means "If there is an accident, it will be too late to save you."
At this time, the dozen or so white desks and cubicles were basically empty, with only Ivan cleaning the desks.
"Wow wow wow, I was almost late."
The colleague who said he was going to taste new snacks hurriedly rushed in. After looking around for a while, he breathed a sigh of relief: "What? I'm the second one here."
"The third one," Ivan raised his head and glanced at him: "Mrs. Nasha said before, 'I'm asking for leave today' and then left."
"Understand, her son has come to the space station. If he gets tripped up by those guys from the security department in the afternoon, he won't be able to leave easily." At the same time, he walked to Ivan's office cubicle and put down a lunch box: "Here.
, your 'rougamo'."
"..." Ivan looked at the contents of the lunch box, raised his head and said, "If you also want to leave early, you can pass the job to me."
"Oh, that's so embarrassing," the colleague rubbed his hands and said, "At least I can still do the work in the morning by myself."
[Zheng——Buzz——]
At this moment, the office intercom rang. When Ivan answered, a voice that spoke very quickly but didn't sound anxious at all sounded:
"[Equipment Maintenance Department, the surveillance at the port is broken, send someone to take a look.]"
"We're not called the 'Equipment Maintenance Department', and why don't we just issue tasks directly with a multi-purpose tool?" a colleague complained naggingly.
"Understand, many elderly people are not used to wearing a 'glove' with them. Calling people directly is more powerful than communicating through communication." Ivan put down the rag: "I'll go and help me look after new tasks.
point."
"Oh..." the colleague responded casually and opened the food box he brought back.
11:30
Didi, beep, swish, swish, ding-buzz-
As noon approached, the original "serious" working atmosphere was gone. When Ivan returned to the office after completing a repair task, at least eight of his dozen colleagues had packed up their desks and were ready to leave.
Of course, there is no noon in the space station, but there is always noon somewhere at the moment.
As for those movements, Ivan, who did not have a game installed in the universal tool, was not sure what they were, but it was obvious that they were all at a "critical moment" and naturally had no time to connect to mission communications.
"Hello." Ivan took off the intercom from the wall.
"[Ivan? Tell your people over there, if you plan to leave early this afternoon, leave now, otherwise don't leave.]" The voice of the superior of the maintenance department came from the intercom: "[People from the security department carried out a surprise attack.
I plan to stop all the people who are going to have lunch to register.】"
The whole office suddenly became extremely quiet.
"Understood, boss." Ivan responded.
Click, as the call was hung up, people in the office seemed to be pressed to pause and then restart again. They immediately packed up everything and prepared to leave work early.
"Ivan, I'm sorry to bother you." "I'll treat you to a drink next time." "He doesn't drink or smoke~" "I have an important job in the afternoon, so I'll pass it on to you."
In less than five minutes, the originally full office suddenly became empty.
"Important work?" Ivan adjusted his multi-tool: "There's something wrong with the lighting in the art exhibition area? Okay."
————
13:45
Just as the superiors said, at about 1 p.m., the military sent a large number of personnel to inspect and evacuate certain places on the Horizon space station. Anyone who stayed in these places was strictly prohibited from leaving.
.
The Horizon Space Station itself belongs to the Star Alliance Military Department and has only opened up civilian areas. This means that not only can they not protest, but they must also actively cooperate with the work.
At this time, Ivan, as the only staff member of the "Equipment Maintenance Department", was being questioned by a petite female officer who was protected by three ordinary soldiers - perhaps an officer.
She has brown hair and brown eyes. She is wearing a strange military uniform with a black base and gold rim, and a wide-brimmed black beret on her head. She looks like she has just grown up, but based on current technology, it is impossible to judge someone based on their appearance alone.
The age is relatively stupid behavior.
"Hello," the young officer looked around the empty office: "I think you are not the only one in your 'Mechanical Repair and Equipment Maintenance Department', right?"
"We conducted a comprehensive maintenance on the space station not long ago, sir," Ivan said: "Most people are on a three-day vacation. I took off my leave in advance to be responsible for daily maintenance work."
"We are not here for a safety inspection, no, it seems to be a safety inspection..." The young officer seemed to be confused: "Anyway, you must register your identity first, and you are not allowed to leave the Horizon space station for any reason within two days.
,Understand?"
"Understood, sir, emergency regulations." Ivan took the registration form handed over by the soldier next to the young officer. After briefly reading the content, he began to fill it out one by one.
Bang!
When he was almost done filling it, a large wrench fell out of his pocket as he moved.
"!" Several soldiers held their waists vigilantly, and one of them even walked directly behind Ivan.
"I'm an engineer, so it makes sense to carry a repair wrench with me," Ivan said.
"Oh? Wrench?" the young officer asked with interest: "I thought most of the repair work now can be done with multi-purpose tools."
"That would be a waste of multi-purpose glue, sir," Ivan picked up the wrench: "In many places where you only need to knock and twist, using multi-purpose tools and consuming multi-purpose glue is a very wasteful behavior - at least I personally think
in this way."
"Look, Chief Ravicia," the soldier behind him opened Ivan's drawers and cabinets: "He has stored many different types of wrenches."
"I'm an engineer. When faced with ever-changing failures, it's reasonable to prepare a variety of response measures." Ivan didn't look back.
"Don't make a fuss, it's just his hobby," the female officer named Lavisia waved her hand: "You don't think this kind of thing can be used as a weapon, do you?"
"I was reckless." The soldier nodded slightly and retreated to Lavisia.
"Well... let me ask, as an engineer, have you seen anything strange in this space station?" Ravicia asked.
"I've seen a lot of them, and sometimes it's hard for me to understand how those machines could break down like that." Ivan replied.
"No, I mean, that kind of strange thing that has abilities that are not consistent with its own structure - it doesn't mean that the efficiency decreases due to loss," Ravicia pointed at the wrench: "For example, the extent to which a wrench can cool down."
"I can't think of anything strange except myself," Ivan answered.
"Huh?" Lavisia looked confused.
"It takes me half an hour to bake bread, but it only takes fifteen minutes for others. I really want to know what's wrong with me. Maybe I'm worse than others, or maybe my positioning is not accurate enough," Ivan said.
.
"Uh..." Lavisia looked at the soldier beside her.
A soldier opened the multi-purpose tool and investigated for a while, then leaned down and whispered: "That's right, he was killed by his colleague..."
"Is that so?" Lavisia turned to look at Ivan with sympathetic eyes: "Believe in yourself, you will definitely be able to do it."
Ivan sighed and remained silent.
20:00
Due to the sudden attack by the military, those superiors and people at the same level who always let the "Equipment Maintenance Department" deal with all kinds of troubles calmed down a lot, allowing Ivan to spend a relatively relaxed afternoon.
After confirming that no more sudden machine failures would come to his door, he locked the door and clocked out.
"Well, is that so?"
On the way back to the dormitory, Ivan noticed that several nearby streets and related blocks had been blocked by military personnel. It seemed that ordinary people would not be allowed to approach them for three days.
If no one is using it, the machine will not malfunction. This is the truth.
The soldier in charge of the blockade checked his ID and waved him through.
When I returned to the apartment, the lights in my colleague's house next door were not turned on. Apparently, he went out to play crazy in the afternoon and has not returned yet.
Ivan closed the door to the apartment, put the bread and milk he bought on the way on the table, and then looked at the toaster placed on the table.
"I am a toaster, I am Ivan Johanstanger," he said, as if he had made up his mind half-heartedly: "I am not a toaster, I am not Ivan Johanstanger."
"The me on the table in the apartment, the me I'm looking at, I'm Ivan, I'm the toaster," he seemed to hesitate for a while before continuing: "The toaster is the toaster, I'm me
, I’m a toaster.”
Crack, creak.
There was a strange sound coming from Ivan, like the sound of mechanical parts colliding and twisting, so he stopped.
"It still fails. I can't seem to be called anything other than the first person. If I keep doing this, I will gradually become mechanized and eventually become me."
"Forget it, never mind, do some soft exercises to change yourself back, then drink a glass of warm milk and go to bed. Even doctors can't find any problems with this kind of strange mechanization," Ivan relaxed his limbs while talking to the oven.
The toaster said: "Wouldn't I be a human being before? If these Star Alliance soldiers came for me, should I hand them over? I will definitely find a way to stop me, right?"
